Balance Festival • Highlights

My alarm went off at 5:15am last Saturday. I usually get up at this time on weekdays to fit in a gym session before work, so it’s not a big deal, except that on Saturdays I like to sleep in! Why was I waking up at this ridiculous time? To get to Balance Festival!

My friend Simona and I decided to go not for just any ticket, but for Urban Triathlon ticket. Basically before you enter the heaven for fitness and health enthusiasts, you first get to do a 20minute HIIT workout, 6km run and a cheeky yoga session. To experience most of the Festival we chose the first wave kicking off at 7am.

Thankfully they were serving coffee and protein breakfast before it all kicked off!

We quickly downed our coffee for that extra energy boost and were ready for an intense HIIT workout which targeted glutes and abs.

We then took the roads of Hackney for a 6km run and, although it was raining, I loved running through completely empty Hackney streets. Simona and I completed 6km run in 32 minutes and were ready for Boys of Yoga to work their magic on us.

I couldn’t believe when I checked my watch that it was 9am and we have already done a 25minute HIIT workout, 6km run and a 20 minute yoga session on Saturday!

With plenty of time left until it all kicks off, we decided to get a well earned breakfast at Leon. I went for porridge with cashew milk, topped with banana and blueberries and a generous cup of Americano.

Once we got our breakfast fix, we were ready to enjoy Balance Festival, starting with Nicky’s Clinch talk “Feed Your Inner Warrior: Empowering You Through Food”.

Nicky’s talk was my favourite of all Live Theatre Shows from the day. She was demonstrating how to cook a healthy bowl of goodness which is good for your body and soul, and most importantly, teaching everyone in the audience that we need to pay attention to what food feels like, rather than concentrate what the science tells us. She prepared a delicious, heart warming bowl of goodness filled with veggies, grilled tempeh, cabbage rolls stuffed with sauerkraut and grilled carrots. Let me tell you – it was insanely good.

We then sat through another cooking show by Dale Pinnock. He was showing that healthy food can actually be quite simple. As simple as pureed sweet potatoes and grilled salmon, which took less than 15 minutes to prepare.

After Dale’s cooking class we were ready to explore the foodie part of the festival, and, oh boy, I found sooooo many goodies! Like these Superfood Bakery Bliss Balls mix that you just whip together and you have a nutritious and seriously delicious snack:

Or a protein powder that not only tastes delicious, but is vegan friendly too:

Then we tried some matcha tea

…vegan veggie and fruit crisps

And even more delicious snacks:

The cakes were out of this world! Made from raw ingredients and vegan friendly too! Loved this one:

We then decided to have a play with Rebel’s Kitchen amazing polaroid creator:

With the “photoshoot” over it was time to explore the fashion area. Although I didn’t take so many pictures in this section, I was seriously impressed with the quality of clothes presented at the festival. I’ve discovered Harvey and Mills – a fitness clothing company that sells leggings and bras with gorgeous prints. My favourite being this outfit.

It was also so great to catch up with Olivia who is the lead designer at Jilla Active. We chatted about her recent trip to Bali, business ideas and an upcoming collaboration with Fit Life Mode. All very very exciting, so keep your eyes peeled as it will be making an appearance on my blog very very soon!

After a lot of walking, talking and exploring we decided that we’ve seen all we wanted at Balance Festival and it was time to grab lunch. We joined my significant other half at Smokoloko for some mouthwatering steak wraps. If you’re ever around Spitafields market, make sure you check them out! I mean, seriously, just look at this:

And of course, how can we go without coffee and dessert?! 🙊

All in all, it was such a great Saturday, I met so many lovely people, tried seriously delicious food and had a really good time!

Did you go to Balance Festival? What were your highlights from the day? 😉